The UK has detained the first small-boat migrants under a “one in, one out” returns treaty with France, as pressure grows on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to stem the influx of asylum-seekers across the English Channel.
An unspecified number of migrants who arrived by boat on Monday are being held in an immigration removal center, the Home Office said in a statement, pending their removal to France. The UK plans to make referrals to France within three days, and France will have 14 days to respond.
Applications are also now open for migrants in France to submit an expression of interest to come to the UK, if they haven’t already attempted to make the crossing illegally and have their passport or other identity documents.
“Criminal gangs have spent seven years embedding themselves along our border and it will take time to unravel them, but these detentions are an important step toward undermining their business model and unraveling the false promises they make,” Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said.
The move comes after Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed the returns treaty last month, in an effort to reduce dangerous small boat crossings through a pilot program lasting 11 months. The number of migrants arriving by this route hit a record high in the first six months of this year, despite Starmer’s insistence that he’s “smashing the gangs” of people-smugglers.
That’s intensifying concerns in the UK that public services are being stretched by the numbers of migrants arriving, despite the fact that the vast majority are coming through legal routes. It’s also making it harder for the government to reduce its reliance on expensive hotels to house asylum-seekers while their claims are being processed.
Nigel Farage’s right-wing anti-immigration party, Reform UK, is capitalizing on the worries about migration, having overtaken Labour in the polls since last year’s general election. While most Members of Parliament have been on their summer break, Farage has kicked off a six-week campaign in which he has repeatedly claimed that Britain is becoming “lawless” and has blamed this on high levels of immigration.
As the Home Office works to communicate the detentions across social media, in an attempt to deter more people from crossing the Channel, Starmer is hoping the UK-France returns treaty will bring down the number of undocumented migrants coming to the UK.
Critics including Farage have dismissed the effectiveness of the program. While the Home Office has refused to state a number, British media have reported that around 50 people could be returned per week under the policy once its fully up and running. That compares with an average of roughly 800 people arriving on small boats each week.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former Conservative MP, said on Thursday that the returns deal was “already falling apart,” citing what he called an “extraordinary loophole” allowing people to avoid removal if they have outstanding human rights claims.
“This is absolutely lunatic,” Rees-Mogg told GB News. “It means that if anybody who has come in illegally, says they’ve got a human rights claim — and even if it’s garbage — they won’t be able to be sent back.”
